Cheryl Piperberg

Biography

I was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1951 and received a BFA from Moore College of Art, in Philadelphia in 1973. I have two wonderful children, Jamie (31) and Jason (21). Today I live and have a studio in Marietta, PA.

In 1987 after working as a freelance illustrator for 15 years in Boston and New York, I started a poster company called "Carrot Prints, Nourishing Images for Children". The posters are distributed internationally, and are found in schools, doctors' offices, daycare centers, and occasionally even on TV or movie sets.

My artwork for children is done with cut paper and colored pencil - this technique helps me to keep the designs simple and clean.

The huge variety of colored papers available provides inspiration, and I really enjoy having such a wide range of colors to play with. Since the shapes are all cut-outs, I can move them around on the page until the design feels balanced, before gluing it all down.

While working with colored pencils, which also have a wide range of colors, the feeling is very different. The results are much softer and i can add many more details, than I can while working in collage.

When creating my artwork for children I'm always trying to tell a story, the octopus and fish are smiling at each other as they swim together in the ocean, the children hold hands. The elephant ponders the poem "twinkle twinkle little star". In these "places" the animals and children from the prints smile straight back at the child who is looking at them.